THIS WEEKEND The
historical drama The Butler easily
won a second term as commander-in-chief of the North American box office
beating out three new releases that each opened in the single-digit millions.
Forest Whitaker's White House saga declined by only 33% in its sophomore
session to $16.5M, according to final
studio figures, pushing the ten-day total to an impressive $51.8M putting
it on track to break the $100M mark and become one of the top five grossing
films ever for its distributor.

The Weinstein Co. release held up almost as well as The
Help from two years ago which dipped by only 23% in its second
frame to $20M. That film, which also held the number one spot over these
same two weekends in 2011, opened on a Wednesday and banked a larger $71.3M
in the 12 days ending with its second weekend. It suffered no decline over
the Labor Day frame so Butler is likely
to post another strong result next weekend which is a session when moviegoers
catch up on films they've been hearing about, but haven't seen yet. Strong
word-of-mouth, positive reviews, and weak competition have been helping
Butler and should continue to assist
the hit film in the weeks to come.

Posting the smallest decline of any film in the top ten was the sleeper
hit comedy We're the Millers which
grossed $13M dipping only 27% in its third weekend. Warner Bros. has taken
in a solid $91.3M to date and should have its fifth $100M+ grosser of the
summer before Labor Day.

The critically-panned young adult fantasy adventure The
Mortal Instruments: City of Bones stumbled on opening weekend
debuting to $9.3M over the weekend from a very wide release in 3,118 locations
for a weak $2,995 average. The PG-13 film based on the popular novel collected
a disappointing total of $14.1M over the five days since its Wednesday
launch.

Sony's effects-heavy release played primarily to its target of young
women and teen girls. Studio research showed that 68% of the crowd was
female and 46% was under 21. The CinemaScore grade was a moderate B+. Films
slotted into the final two weeks of August are generally turkeys that studios
don't believe will perform in the first place so a large opening weekend
was never expected.

The British comedy The World's End
debuted in fourth place with $8.8M from 1,551 theaters for a respectable
$5,667 average which was tops among all wide releases this weekend. The
Focus title got a wider release than director Edgar Wright's last film
Hot Fuzz which bowed to $5.8M from
825 locations for a stronger $7,089 average. Both films, along with cult
hit Shaun of the Dead, star Simon Pegg
and Nick Frost. Reviews were stellar for End
and given the crowded marketplace and end-of-summer slowdown, the opening
was commendable. The R-rated film earned a decent B+ grade from CinemaScore
and played 58% male and 71% under 35.

Off 36% in fifth place was Disney's animated film Planes
with $8.6M for a sum to date of $59.6M. Among late summer kidpics, it should
end up ahead of The Smurfs 2 and about
even with Turbo.

The new horror film You're Next
was next with a sixth place opening grossing $7M. Lionsgate averaged a
soft $2,881 from 2,437 locations. Reviews were very positive for a fright
flick, but audiences were not sold on it. Those that did open their wallets
gave it a B- grade from CinemaScore indicating the usual path ahead for
the genre.

The sci-fi actioner Elysium followed
with $6.9M, down 49%, for a $68.9M cume. Overseas business is solid for
the Sony title with an additional $70M taken in to date.

The fantasy sequel Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
dropped 40% to $5.3M lifting Fox's total to $48.4M. Universal's own late-summer
sequel Kick-Ass 2 fell apart in its
second weekend tumbling 67% to $4.4M. The super hero pic has banked just
$22.5M and may end with about $30M, or more than a third below the $48.1M
of its 2010 predecessor.

Grossing $4M was Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine
which expanded aggressively from 229 to 1,283 locations putting it into
the top ten for the first time. The Sony Classics release averaged a lukewarm
$3,096 but has collected a solid $14.5M to date. With a long holiday weekend
coming up plus moviegoing shifting to adult fare in September, the acclaimed
pic is well-positioned to remain a factor in the coming weeks.

The Weinstein Co. generated only moderate results from its Wong Kar
Wai film The Grandmaster which had
attached a "Martin Scorsese presents" credit to boost interest.
The stylish martial arts epic platformed in New York and Los Angeles to
$132,617 from just seven theaters for a decent $18,945 average. It was
not a stellar enough result to expect a strong expansion in the weeks to
come. Reviews were generally positive. Grandmaster
goes nationwide into several hundred theaters this Friday and will face
three more new wide releases cramming into theaters.

Elsewhere below the top ten, the animated smash Despicable
Me 2 crossed double milestones over the weekend by surpassing
both the $350M domestic and $800M worldwide marks. Universal's global cume
is now a towering $805.8M making it the seventh highest-grossing animated
film of all-time. The studio also stated that the Gru sequel was its most
profitable film ever. Of course to verify that, studios need to start reporting
honest cost figures (including marketing spends) and not just revenue figures.
The monster flick Pacific Rim inched
closer to the century club raising its cume to $99.2M and may break $100M
shortly after Labor Day.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $83.8M which was up 10% from
last year when The Expendables 2 remained
at number one with $13.4M; and up 21% from 2011 when The
Help stayed in the top spot with $14.5M
in its third weekend.

Compared to projections, The Mortal Instruments
and You're Next both opened below my
respective forecasts of $11M and $13M while The
World's End debuted very close to my $8M prediction.

Get earlier box office updates and analysis by following BoxOfficeGuru.com
on Twitter.

Be sure to check back on Thursday
for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Getaway,
One Direction: This Is Us, and Closed
Circuit all open.

#

Title

Aug 23 - 25

Aug 16 - 18

% Chg.

Theaters

Weeks

AVG

Cumulative

Distributor

1

The Butler

$ 16,503,812

$ 24,637,312

-33.0

3,110

2

$ 5,307

$ 51,760,625

Weinstein
Co.

2

We're the Millers

13,047,119

17,964,164

-27.4

3,445

3

3,787

91,287,318

Warner
Bros.

3

The Mortal
Instruments: City of Bones

9,336,957

3,118

1

2,995

14,088,359

Sony

4

The World's
End

8,790,237

1,551

1

5,667

8,790,237

Focus

5

Planes

8,575,214

13,388,534

-36.0

3,378

3

2,539

59,599,909

Disney

6

You're Next

7,020,196

2,437

1

2,881

7,020,196

Lionsgate

7

Elysium

6,926,280

13,686,832

-49.4

2,913

3

2,378

68,880,218

Sony

8

Percy Jackson:
Sea of Monsters

5,274,716

8,753,723

-39.7

2,730

3

1,932

48,421,169

Fox

9

Kick-Ass 2

4,373,310

13,332,955

-67.2

2,945

2

1,485

22,526,445

Universal

10

Blue Jasmine

3,972,687

2,291,183

73.4

1,283

5

3,096

14,471,489

Sony
Classics

11

2 Guns

3,359,825

5,806,850

-42.1

1,841

4

1,825

65,353,995

Universal

12

Jobs

2,866,014

6,713,900

-57.3

2,381

2

1,204

12,009,301

Open
Road

13

The Smurfs
2

2,764,252

4,769,626

-42.0

1,852

4

1,493

62,580,370

Sony

14

Despicable
Me 2

2,600,715

3,908,735

-33.5

1,402

8

1,855

350,701,135

Universal

15

The Wolverine

2,483,787

4,518,631

-45.0

1,449

5

1,714

125,079,463

Fox

16

The Conjuring

2,058,284

3,885,296

-47.0

1,355

6

1,519

131,668,992

Warner
Bros.

17

Paranoia

1,313,251

3,528,376

-62.8

2,459

2

534

6,250,293

Relativity

18

Grown Ups 2

900,617

1,708,266

-47.3

620

7

1,453

128,945,248

Sony

19

Turbo

643,442

1,078,888

-40.4

470

6

1,369

78,785,445

Fox

20

The Spectacular
Now

619,234

413,358

49.8

154

4

4,021

1,904,412

A24

Top
5

$ 56,253,339

$ 83,009,797

-32.2

Top
10

83,820,528

113,572,527

-26.2

Top
20

103,429,949

133,198,793

-22.3

Top
20 vs. 2012

103,429,949

91,645,829

12.9

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of
the author.